Kitsune

Contents

Appearance

Physically, kitsune are noted for having as many as nine tails. Generally, a greater number of tails indicates an older and more powerful fox; in fact, some folktales say that a fox will only grow additional tails after it has lived 100 years. One, five, seven, and nine tails are the most common numbers in folk stories. When a kitsune gains its ninth tail, its fur becomes white or gold.
Common forms assumed by kitsune include beautiful women, young girls, or elderly men. These shapes are not limited by the fox's age or gender and a kitsune can duplicate the appearance of a specific person. Foxes are particularly renowned for impersonating beautiful women.
In some stories, kitsune have difficulty hiding their tails when they take human form; looking for the tail, perhaps when the fox gets drunk or careless, is a common method of discerning the creature's true nature.

Personality

Found throughout East Asian folklore are innumberable tales about the fox, an animal considered predisposed to magic and particularly prone to developing ghostly qualities. Like the tengu, foxes were both divine and mischievous beings, adept at shapeshifting and illusion and often accused of possessing and misleading humans.

Kitsunes' have things called Kitsune balls, or star balls, which is a small white-gold ball that is a Kitsune's most prized possession, since itis almost like their life force in a ball. If you get your hands on a Kitsune's star ball, you would have the ability to control the Kitsune, and make it do your bidding. However, Kitsune hate being stripped of their freedom, and when the Kitsune gets its star ball back, there will be serious repercussions for you to deal with.

Kitsune are often presented as tricksters, with motives that vary from mischief to malevolence. Stories tell of kitsune playing tricks on overly proud samurai, greedy merchants, and boastful commoners, while the crueler ones abuse poor tradesmen and farmers or devout Buddhist monks. Their victims are usually men; women are possessed instead. For example, kitsune are thought to employ their kitsune-bi or fox-fire to lead travelers astray in the manner of a will o' the wisps Another tactic is for the kitsune to confuse its target with illusions or visions. Other common goals of trickster kitsune include seduction, theft of food, humiliation of the prideful, or vengeance for a perceived slight.